“Beauty and the Beast” was always going to open big. How much did it make?

Estimates place the remake of the Disney classic earning $170 million. That would be enough to top the $166 million earned by “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” for a new March record and is the seventh-biggest opening weekend ever.

“Beauty and the Beast” stars Emma Watson, Luke Evans and Josh Gad.

“Kong: Skull Island” dropped to second, earning $28.9 million. That’s a decent hold for the monster film, while “Logan” took third with $17.5 million.

“Beauty and the Beast” earned a massive $63.78 million on Friday. That is a notch below “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and the $81.5 million it earned on its opening Friday, but comic book films are almost always more front loaded.

The Disney film starring Emma Watson (“Harry Potter”) should wind up around $160-170 million for the weekend.

The tale as old as time returns to theaters. There’s no question “Beauty and the Beast” will open above $100 million. How high will it soar?

Disney has had a lot of success bringing animated classics to live action. “Maleficent,” “Cinderella,” and “The Jungle Book” all enjoyed strong box office numbers but “Beauty and the Beast” stands in a class above them.

The animated film was released in 1991, meaning fans of that film are old enough to have nostalgia set in and many may have children of their own to bring. “Beauty and the Beast” stands tall as one of those revered films with music that people still sing today.

All that means anticipation is sky high. The movie earned $16.7 million during preview showings, much higher than other recent family hits like “Finding Dory” ($9.2 million). This film will light the box office on fire. Can it catch “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and its $166 million March record? It’ll be close.

James Wan already had horror hits like “Saw” and “Insidious” on his hands. Now he can add “The Conjuring”, which earned more than $41 million. That’s more than twice its budget already! The other films like “RED 2”, “Turbo” and “R.I.P.D” starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges ranged from OK to out right bomb.

With the limited access to computers I’ll be having over this week and next this will be an abbreviated version of the Box office battle.

This week, four films hit theaters. Will any break out?

“Turbo” features the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Snoop Dogg and more. And it’s premise about a racing slug has the possibility of attracting the same kind of crowd that Pixar’s “Cars” brought in. But, it’s being released after “Monsters University” and “Despicable Me 2” and with the much more anticipated (ugh) “The Smurfs 2” still to come, one has to wonder if this will be the odd animated film left out. Still, it still should do better than say “Rise of the Guardians” but probably not by much.

Opening weekend: $30-35 million

James Wan is back with “The Conjuring”. The director of “Saw” and “Insidious” has Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga starring in this film, which is gaining a ton of buzz about how scary it is. It’s not opening in as many theaters as the other films, but this one could make a strong play for first place.

Opening weekend: $28-33 million

“RED 2” stars Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung Hun Lee, Brian Cox and Neal McDonough. But the star power won’t help this film. The first film opened to $21 million on its way to $90 million domestically and nearly $200 million worldwide. I doubt it matches those numbers domestically as many view it as an unnecessary sequel to an OK first film, though it should open around the same level.

Opening weekend: $20-25 million

Finally we have “R.I.P.D.” The presence of Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds won’t help this film escape its “Men in Black” knockoff feel and, frankly, it looks like this summer’s “Jonah Hex”. Never a good thing.

Giant robots and Adam Sandler couldn’t stop “Despicable Me 2”, which topped the box office for a second weekend in a row. The animated sequel earned $44.7 million. Adam Sandler had the second biggest opening of his career with “Grown Ups 2”, which also features Kevin James, David Spade, Taylor Lautner and more with $42 million. Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim” opened with $38 million, a disappointing debut for the monster/robot film.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.